Huddersfield Art Society’s first En Plein Air day for 2016 started out overcast but soon turned to rain. We were in Marsden, West Yorkshire. A very nice mill town on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, with plenty to satisfy the landscape artist. I had a few problems with the above painting not least caused by the weather. The painting is on muslin covered hardboard (see Haide Jo Summers you tube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvqhGbr_S28) that had 2 coates of acrylic gesso. I used W&N Artisan water mixable oils. Ah you say, water mixable oils in the rain, not a good idea, and you are right. So a hasty retreat was made back to the hall that our resourceful organiser David Whiting had arranged, to complete most of the painting from memory and a hasty pic taken on my iPhone. Water mixable oils, this was only the 2nd time I had used them and the “Jury’s still out” as far as I am concerned. They certainly do not have the same butteriness and feel of proper oil paint. Their attractiveness is of course the the use of water and not turps to thin the paint and clean up afterwards. I found I had to apply the paint with a palette knife rather than a brush to get any depth of paint on the board. I did buy, and use, W&Ns painting medium which did help a bit but it felt sticky and gloopy not at all like Liquin or a home made turps and oil mix. I was disappointed because I want them to use at the HAS Portrait Group, which is indoors of course, but I will have to persevere a bit longer before consigning them to the bin and using start oil paint. So this, my 2nd attempt at Plein Air painting, wasn’t a success either, my first being on the banks of Derwentwater on a very cold and windy afternoon in May. But I did feel a sense of righteousness standing in the countryside painting what i saw rather than copying a photograph in the comfort of my bedroom studio. I will persevere with this traditional style of painting. A warm day must just be round the corner, mustn’t it?
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Tomorrow is the first of Huddersfield Art Society's "En Plein Air" days. We meet in Marsden, West Yorkshire, with fingers crossed that the weather will be kind. This will be my second attempt at painting what I see in the open air and following my first attempt a few weeks ago I have had to update my kit list. So here is the revised list.
✔ Penknife ✔ Pallete knife ✔ Water Soluble Oil Paints (W&N Artisan) ✔ Brushes ✔ Mediums ✔ Pencils/charcoal ✔ String ✔ Palette ✔ Plastic bags for rubbish ✔ Water container ✔ Hand wash ✔ Towel ✔ Rags ✔ Painting Boards I'm sure I've left something out but only time will tell. Wakefield #2 Upper York Street, Sunday 11/10/15 10:30 to 12:00a.m Weather sunny and moderately warm. Graphite on cartridge paper 11 1/2" x 16 1/2". This location was determined by Ian. When I arrived here, the views from the location, were not very inspiring, being predominately car parks. However I found an acceptable view point from a space in the the car park adjacent to street. Armed with a mug of hot coffee a range of pencils and cartridge paper pad, I set about recording the what was in front of me. As it was sunday morning there were not a lot of people about, so the drawing looks a bit lifeless. One of the challenges to "drawing from life" arose while drawing the car in the foreground. A man came out of the house along side, got in the car and drove it away, hence the unfinished appearance.Also drawing from inside a car has its difficulties as it restricts the movement of ones arms. This made keeping the accuracy of the perspective lines difficult and as you can see some of the roof lines in particular are a bit off.
However I enjoyed the challenge producing the drawing and feel it faithfully records time and place which is the Urban Sketching philosophy. I may work on it further however to correct some of the perspective errors and perhaps add a bit of colour. 6th October 2015 My friends threw darts at the map in a variety of ways (blindfolded, left handed, pacing the map on the floor and throwing the dart in the air) so the locations are randomly selected and produced a good variety of views. and so now I shall set off, pencil and paper in hand, to record the urban landscape of Wakefield.
This is "Urban Sketch #1" of Wakefield. The location was determined by my wife Janice throwing a dart at a Map of Wakefield (see below). Further random locations will determined by friends throwing darts at the map. I hope this creates views of Wakefield which represent it's true nature. So here is the first:- This is the view from a small square off Chancery Lane. The plaque on the right of the seated figure is to Nelson Mandella. I must find out more about why and when this square was created.
The drawing was made on the 1st Oct 2015. at around 2:15 p.m. A nice sunny afternoon, with very few people about. It was drawn with pencil, fibre pen and watercolour. The theme for this term is "Representational". An intentionally wide subject to allow us (students) as much scope as possible. I have chosen to create a number "representations" of my home city, Wakefield West Yorkshire using randomly selected views and in the style of the "Urban Sketchers".
Wakefield is not the prettiest of England's cities and I have decided to exclude the usual views of the Cathedral, Hepworth Gallery, Chantry Bridge etc., Location Selection I plan to invite people to throw darts at a map of Wakefield. Where the darts land will be the location of one of my drawings. I hope to do one per week and will publish them on this blog. This method of selecting a location to produce a piece of Art was first used by The Boyle Family who invited visitors to one of there exhibitions to throw darts or fire an air gun at a map of the world to determine the locations of there next art creations. Google or wikipedia will give you more information on the "Boyle Family" My approach will be to draw/sketch "en plein air" , no photography will be used to create any of the sketches or final image(s). I am particularly interested in the "Urban Sketchers". You can find out more about this international group at www.urbansketching.org. Their manifesto
So here goes, wish me luck I hope to post the first drawing/sketch soon. Here is the start of the first painting for 2015. Oil on canvas 20" x 16" (505 x 405).
Canvas Prep - 3 coats of Jacksons Acrylic Gesso Primer was applied, lightly sanded between coats. The canvas was then toned with a thin wash of Burnt Sienna with a touch of Burnt Umber oil paint to get rid of the white. Composition - One of my own photographs is used for the reference. A grid was applied to the canvas and the image transferred using a white pastel pencil. I am not happy with composition and may still yet change it. The head needs to be moved up the canvas I think and perhaps enlarged. I'll live with for a few days and then decide. This is where it is at the moment The plan below is to set out my objectives month by month for the year ahead. Whether I complete them all remains to be seen but the intention is there if the resilience may not be. Looking back at last years plan I hope to at least get past march this time.
I think this watercolour, of my daughter inlaw Jo and her horse Sunny, is finished. While working on it this afternoon I kept fiddling with little areas which was adding nothing to the image. Always a good sign to finish. So here it is, watercolour on Saunders Waterford Rough 140lb 16" x 16". A very challenging picture requiring multiple washes to create the form and give the required depth of colour particularly on the horse.
What went well?
The digital images are finally complete and are being exhibited at the Chesney Centre in Featherstone until January 13th 2015. I will post pictures of all the paintings if I can obtain the permission of the other artists. Only the first 2 of the above images were included for exhibition from me. The first, which is the portrait of Unity Mitford created from binary code is 20" x 24" profesionally printed on a large linear printer. The second, which is a series of images created on an iPad using the ArtRage app, is 16" x 12". This image is in the style of Andy Warhol and was printed on a laser printer. I found this project extremely interesting and working in a group of 12 artists was very stimulating. It was very beneficial to receive critique and suggestions during the creation of my images, and to see the totally different approaches each artist adopted for their interpretation of the subject (Unity). The fact that the work was to be exhibited also pushed me to create something original and and worthy of showing to the public. |
AuthorThis blog is to record what I am currently working on, my thoughts and self critique and will contain all of my work including the good the bad and the ugly. Archives
June 2016
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